Ecclesiastes 2:18-23

The Vanity of Toil -- Ecclesiastes 2:18-23: When Solomon stopped to consider his life he hated what he had done. He had spent his life collecting stuff to leave to someone else. He realized that the person that he left all this to might be a fool and squander it all away. These possibilities lead Solomon to despair. "Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2:20)

Solomon even contemplated the fact that all his possessions might be left to a person that had made no effort to help gain them. What advantage is it to a man when he has acquired all these things only to leave them to be possessed by another? The poor soul that pursues wealth might not even be able to sleep peaceably at night. He might be eager so to get wealth and so anxious about keeping it, that his sleep is not sweet and refreshing to him. "This is also vanity."